Brief affairs : narrative strategies in female adultery stories by Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton

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Inspired by the work of Continental European, particularly French, writers of the second half of the nineteenth century, the American authors Kate Chopin and Edith Wharton frequently introduced the female adultery motif in their literary work. The turn-of-the-century American literary market generally considered female adultery an unacceptable topic, especially if it was used to express dissenting views and to criticize the accepted moral values of contemporary society.
Chopin and Wharton attempted to circumvent the restrictions which the literary market placed upon their work by employing a number of narrative strategies. They opted for the genre of the short story and, moreover, for certain subgenres of the short story. In addition, their use of point of view was aimed at influencing the reader’s opinion of the adulterous wife and to express criticism at the conventional moral standards without overtly offending their literary audience.
Through their use of the motif, Chopin and Wharton contributed to the public debate on social and moral issues related to the position of women in contemporary society. Their female adultery fiction was instrumental in introducing into American literature a topic which had, until then, remained virtually unused.

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